ctic travel there is no sentimental deference to a
leader unless he is the best man of the party, and Arctic hardships
quickly reduce things and men to their real worth. Nansen and his crew
will prove, we are confident, as firmly knit together as the timbers
of the "Fram" herself. Captain Sverdrup, who accompanied him across
Greenland, goes as navigating officer of the "Fram."

Perhaps the most original of the many original fittings of this little
polar cruiser is the dynamo which will for the first time in the
history of exploration supply abundant light during the whole Arctic
night. When there is wind a windmill will work it; but in the calm
weather the men, in watches, will take their necessary exercise in
tramping round a capstan to the strains of a musical box of long
Arctic experience--it was in the "Jeannette,"--and thus at least eight
hours of perfect light will be secured every day.

Everything that foresight can suggest and money can buy has been
secured to make the voyage a success; but even in the most sanguine
mind the risk must appear great, and the time of suspense will be
long. The drift across the polar area cannot occupy less than two
years, and provisions are carried for five. But we need not dwell on
dangers; the personality of Nansen rises above them all--the motto he
carries with him in a little volume of condensed poetry, as powerful
meat for the soul as any of his cunningly concocted extracts are for
the body, is the wish of all his friends--

"Greet the Unseen with a cheer,
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be,
'Strive and thrive!' cry 'Speed--fight on, fare ever
There as here!'"

The Norwegian expedition goes out under the command of a hero full of
experience, ripe in knowledge, certain to do all that a strong and
trained man can accomplish, backed by large grants of money from his
own government, and smaller gifts from people and societies in many
lands.

JACKSON'S EXPEDITION.

The British expedition which has been projected is not a national
effort. It is purely private, planned and equipped by private
enterprise and private money, in order to follow up the line in which
private exertions have already done more for polar exploration than
many government expeditions have achieved. Its leader, Mr. Frederick
G. Jackson, is a business man, possessed of leisure and sufficient
means, and experienced in travel in all parts of the world. Of the
same age as Doctor N